Editor’s note: For Hawaii’s Aug. 10 Primary Election, Civil Beat asked candidates to answer some questions about where they stand on various issues and what their priorities will be if elected.

The following came from Heather Kimball, candidate for Hawaii County Council District 1, which covers North Hilo, Hamakua and a portion of Waimea. The other candidates include Brittany Anderson and BJ Penn.

Go to Civil Beat’s Election Guide for general information, and check out other candidates on the General Election Ballot.

1. What is the biggest issue facing Hawaii County, and what would you do about it?

Cost of living. With inflation prices for goods and services have skyrocketed, but above all, the cost of housing is the main concern. I will expand on addressing housing in question No. 4.

What the county can do is keep costs down and ensure that the revenue we collect is well spent.

The main cost that the county controls is property taxes. Over my two terms we have increased the homeowners’ exemption, increased exceptions for kupuna, enabled residents in agricultural programs to get the lower homeowners tax rate and 3% CAP and lowered the homeowners and affordable rental tax rates.

The county’s ability to deliver services is also impacted by rising costs and much of our infrastructure is in disrepair due to deferred maintenance. As county officials, we must be careful and creative when spending tax dollars. We have prioritized public safety funding for police, fire and emergency preparedness and invested heavily in repair and maintenance of existing facilities.

Strong intergovernmental relationships, and investing in grant writing personnel has brought an unprecedented amount of funding for projects from housing, to road and bridge repairs, to environmental protections and more.

2. Overtourism can degrade the environment, threaten biodiversity, contribute to wear and tear on infrastructure, generate traffic and disrupt neighborhoods. What do you think about the amount of tourism on the Big Island and how it’s managed?

The success of creating a tourism economy on our island after the plantations closed came with unintended consequences. However, that past success can be translated into a concerted effort to better manage the visitor industry. Visiting Hawaii is a privilege, not a right and it is reasonable for the county to manage where tourists can go and what they do here.

Though visitors have increased, per-visitor spending has declined. That is why I support the governor’s proposed green fee and county fees for visiting public places and utilizing public infrastructure. This funding could go to community nonprofits to protect the sensitive environmental and cultural sites on the island and improve infrastructure, benefiting residents as well. This strategy has been implemented in other highly trafficked tourist areas with great success.

In addition, we need to create places for visitors where they won’t be disruptive to local communities and support programs to guide and educate visitors so that they are responsible guests. We also need to address the expansion of illegal short-term vacation rentals; to this end I have proposed legislation to strengthen our STVR code, which will improve enforcement for existing STVR restrictions and limit any further expansion to only owner-hosted rentals.

3. What needs to happen to relieve traffic congestion in and around Kailua-Kona and along the Puna-Keaau-Hilo corridor?

Though these areas are outside my district, traffic is an island-wide concern. The usual solution is expanding or building more roads, yet this almost never works to solve the problem. The better solution is having fewer people driving.

There are two main approaches to addressing this, increasing the use of muti-modal and public transportation and reducing the travel distances between home and work, school and commercial centers.

Hawaii County has been implementing its mass transit master plan, as a result we have seen better service with more routes and buses (including alternative fuel buses), and ridership is free. Work is still needed developing hubs in areas like Pahoa and addressing “the last mile” by increasing access to bike lanes, walking paths and smaller transit vehicle routes.

If road expansion is developed, providing dedicated bus and commuter lanes would incentivize the use of mass transit or carpooling.

The Puna-Keaau-Hilo and Kailua-Kona have different challenges. In Puna-Keaau-Hilo it is important to develop commercial areas so people can work and shop closer to home. In Kailua-Kona more workforce housing is needed closer to the existing commercial centers.

Across the island flexible work and school schedules would help alleviate congestion at peak times.

4. The cost of living on Hawaii island is rising rapidly. How are working and middle-class people expected to buy a house or pay the rent as well as take care of other expenses? And how can the county government help?

The county can address housing affordability in three ways. First, build more inventory. The county created a housing production fund, with at least $5 million per year, to develop housing and housing infrastructure. We also created a preference program, so residents, local workers and returning students will be given priority for this housing. We have streamlined the permitting process, reduced permitting requirements, established pre-approval for multifamily dwellings and we are deliberating a bill to make it easier to build ADUs for family or long-term rentals.

Second, the county can ensure that existing housing remains in residential use and convert vacant properties to housing. We are working on strengthening our STVR code to keep housing for residential use and drafting legislation to allow for the conversion of existing vacant commercial space to housing.

Finally, the county can help people stay in their homes. With so many living paycheck to paycheck, it only takes a car repair or medical emergency to come up short on rent. We also have people in houses that need repairs to be safe. Funding programs like our emergency rental and mortgage assistance programs and the residential repair loan program can help fill the gap and keep people housed.

5. Do you support the construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope on Mauna Kea?

When I was a kid, I would go with my dad to our backyard to look through his homemade telescope. The wonder that I felt looking at the stars is in part what led me to pursue science. Educated, and working, as a scientist, I value the contributions of astronomy to understanding our universe and appreciate the technological advancements, educational and employment opportunities it could  provide to the professional field and to the local community.

I think the development of the Thirty Meter Telescope would make significant contributions to the field of astronomy and would provide benefits to our community.

However, I do want to acknowledge that the issue of TMT is deeper than just building a facility. The opposition to TMT is rooted in the trauma of colonialism and valid mistrust of government in land management and cultural matters. These issues must be addressed for the project to move forward.

The new Maunakea Stewardship Oversight Committee is comprised of knowledgeable members who I believe represent the wide variety of viewpoints around Maunakea stewardship and TMT. As such, I will respect and support whatever decisions they come to, and I thank them for their service.    

6. Homelessness remains a problem statewide, including on Hawaii island. What would you do to come to grips with this persistent problem?

Access to safe shelter should be recognized as a basic human right. The members of our community who are homeless deserve our compassion and to be treated with dignity.

Addressing homelessness requires a multi-pronged approach. In evaluating jurisdictions that have successfully addressed homelessness, getting people into housing first and then providing support services to address the root causes of homelessness has proven to be the most effective strategy.

Hawaii County has implemented a five-year pilot program to help address the issue of homelessness on the island. Approximately $10 million per year has been dedicated to provide housing, as well as wrap-around services for mental health, substance abuse, domestic violence and other causes of homelessness. While there is still more to be done, thus far we have seen a 28% reduction in the homeless population at the last point in time count.

7. Half of Hawaii’s cesspools are on the Big Island, some 49,300. Seepage from cesspools can make people sick, harm coral reefs and lead to a variety of ecological damage. By law, cesspools must be upgraded to septic systems by 2050. What can be done to help people who may not be able to afford the conversion?

We are rapidly approaching a point where limits of installers and materials will make it impossible to reach the 2050 deadline. It is going to be necessary to prioritize funding toward conversions in coastal areas, near streams and in areas with porous soils. We also need to encourage connection to sewers in places where we anticipate wastewater infrastructure and where we know a septic is no better than a cesspool.

The county is developing an integrated wastewater plan to identify these areas and different funding mechanisms. The federal, state and county government all have a responsibility to contribute through grants and bonds to keep costs low for consumers. We can create improvement districts, to amortize costs and partner with outside entities to build facilities that are leased to the county to operate. Finally, the residential repair program can be used to pass through funding from the DOH for household-level conversion.

We do need to communicate the true costs of not converting cesspools to incentivize early conversion and help provide revenue to help lower-moderate income households convert. I have been discussing this with state partners as a possible countywide improvement district or a scaled clean water protection fee.

8. What is the first thing Hawaii County should do to get in front of climate change rather than just reacting to it?

The first thing the county should do is a facilities and critical infrastructure assessment to determine how the county can mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and identify possible vulnerabilities to the impacts of climate change.

Fortunately, the new Office of Climate, Sustainability, Equity and Resilience (OSCER) has secured grant funding to do just that. The office was designed to coordinate efforts between departments and with community partners, provide technical support and help secure funding to make sure we can successfully adapt and build resilience in Hawaii County. A similar assessment should also be done for any new county projects.

In conjunction with these assessments, we need to continue the development of our emergency preparedness and response programs so that we are ready to respond to the impacts of climate change.

In May, council members and representatives from county departments participated in three days of muti-hazard response and whole-community preparedness training. I came away with the sense that our county is doing a lot of things right and that this type of training should be a constant, and repeated, process. The more we can keep evolving our preparedness strategies with best practices, the better off everyone will be when disaster strikes.

9. Should the Hu Honua biomass energy plant be allowed to start operating? Why or why not?

No. The Hawaii Supreme Court, Public Utilities Commission and the Consumer Advocate have all been clear that the project does not clearly meet the greenhouse gas pollution reduction requirements and the price of the energy generated by Hu Honua would be higher to consumers. Burning trees for energy is ancient technology. With the advancements in other renewable energy resources and storage we can do better and save consumers money.

There are also other issues to consider such as the impact of the injection wells, outstanding permits, a clear forestry plan for the harvesting and mitigating impact of transporting the trees.

Over the last few years, I have heard the community opposition and distrust of the project continue to grow. Just because a large investment has been made in the project, we should not get into the habit of using that as a justification to allow projects to operate that have not followed regulations or meet our renewable energy goals.

10. How would you make the county administration more transparent and accessible to the public?

I believe that government works better with active community participation. I love to see a room full of testifiers at council hearings because public input makes for better legislation.

In drafting legislation, I reach out to communities impacted by a particular bill and use their input to craft legislation that encompasses as many perspectives as possible. For example, with the STVR bill in progress we created a website to share drafts of the bill, webinars covering the different drafts and provided ways to for stakeholders to offer feedback. My office also sends out weekly newsletters and offers regular talk story sessions.

More broadly, we are working on a new document system for the council which will hopefully make agendas and draft legislation more accessible to the public. We have also transitioned a staff person to serve as a public information officer to do outreach for the council. Most importantly, the county is upgrading its financial system and we have asked for the ability to create a dashboard for the public so they can more clearly see where their tax dollars are being spent and the status of capital improvement projects.